Around the World in 8000 days: London - and a trip to the Houses of Parliament

Welcome to our travel blog. We are Tabitha and Nic. In 2011 we 'retired' in our early 40s and set off to travel the world. We spent our first year in South America and have been lucky enough to make two trips to Antarctica.

Our blog is a record of our travels, thoughts and experiences. It is not a guide book, but we do include some tips and information, so we hope that you may find it useful if you are planning to visit somewhere we have been. Or you may just find it interesting as a bit of armchair travel.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

London - and a trip to the Houses of Parliament

Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben, Palace of Westminster

Away from the seaside, we spent the rest of our time back in London, most of it in a house sit Stoke Newington, looking after a couple of lovely, if slightly timid, cats.

We needed to spend some time in London anyway, as our tenants in our flat were leaving and we needed to find new ones. Thankfully, after one false start, that process wasn't too painful, and we soon found ourselves a new set of tenants, who are now safely installed.

We quite liked the Stoke Newington area, but didn't end up getting to see too much of it as I managed to go down with a pretty rotten chest infection, that had me coughing, which initially sent the cats running out of the room, but they soon got used to it, and stayed put, but just gave me a bit of a dirty look for disturbing their peace!

Oliver Cromwell, Palace of Westminster

Unfortunately though, during one of my violent coughing fits I managed to put my back out pretty badly. And believe me, coughing when your back is out is not a good way to be - one time it hurt so much that I actually passed out briefly, leaving poor Nic thinking I was having a stroke or something!

Thankfully, the antibiotics that I'd been given soon cleared up the chest infection, but the back issue turned out to be rather more lengthy. You'll hear more about that later, but for now, suffice to say, I was largely immobile for quite some while.

Palace of Westminster

One thing we had managed to do before I became stuck to the sofa, was to finally get along to a visit to the Houses of Parliament. I have a fondness for the gothic style, so The Palace of Westminster has long been a favourite building of mine from the outside.

There has been a Palace of some form or other here since the Danish King Cnut, who was King of England from 1016-35. King Cnut is the one who tried to hold back the sea, and is often therefore referenced as someone vain or thinking they are more powerful than they are. In fact, historians believe that this was not the case, and that Cnut was in fact demonstrating to his over flattering courtiers that he did not have that power, only God did.

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

When Edward the Confessor took the throne in 1042, he commissioned the building of Westminster Abbey (though this original was mostly demolished by Henry III in 1245, and the current one built over the next few centuries,) and a royal palace. He didn't last long enough to enjoy them though, as he famously died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, when William the Conqueror took the throne.

It was his son, William II, who built Westminster Hall, which is oldest surviving part of the palace, dating from 1097. The roof of the Hall was replaced in 1393 by Richard II, and is an impressive hammer-beam roof, which is the largest medieval timber roof in Northern Europe.

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

This is the place where many important events have taken place, from the trial and sentencing to death of Charles I and subsequent inauguration of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector, to coronation banquets and lyings in state of royalty and other honoured people like Winston Churchill. It is also where visiting dignitaries, like Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela have stood to address Parliament.

Westminster Hall, was one of the few parts of the original palace to survive the Great Fire in 1834. The fire started when they needed to get rid of two cartloads of wooden tally sticks, that had previously been used for accounting. It was decided to burn them in the two underfloor stoves, but it seems that the heat caused the wooden panelling to be set alight, and most of the Palace was destroyed.

Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

It was after this fire that the Palace as we know it today was built. A competition was held to come up with a design, which was stipulated must be in either the gothic or Elizabethan style. This was because, while the fashion of the day was neo-classical, the fact that this had been used for The White House in Washington DC meant that it was associated with republicanism, and they wanted something that gave a more conservative feel.

The competition attracted 97 entries, and the winning number 64 was submitted by Charles Barry, with some help from Augustus Welby Pugin, who was to design most of the interiors. Neither man actually made it to the end of the build, both working themselves to an early death before it was finished.

St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

They reclaimed some eight acres of land from the River Thames to build the Palace, and it took thirty years to complete. The Lords moved in to their Chamber in 1847, and the Commons to theirs in 1852, with the building work still going on around them.

The use of the sand coloured Yorkshire limestone turned out to be something of a mistake, as it quickly decayed in the coal burning pollution of London, and had to be replaced with Rutland limestone during the restoration in 1930-60. Even then, the pollution quickly discoloured it, and a lengthy cleaning process had to be undertaken place in the latter part of last century.

St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

The Palace also suffered during World War II, being bombed like so much of London. On 10-11 May 1941, the bombing was especially bad and both the House of Commons and Westminster Hall were set alight. A former cabinet minister, Walter Elliot, hurried from his nearby home and not only made the quick decision to sacrifice the Commons Chamber to save the much older Westminster Hall, he even to an axe to the locked doors of the Hall himself to get access for the firefighters.

The tour of the Palace is good. It contains a nice amount of detail, without becoming tedious, and the inside is certainly impressive. There are lots of interesting little snippets of information along the way, about the decoration, the history, and odd little rules or customs.

Broken spur, St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster

The tour takes you into The Queen's Robing Room, the two Chambers, St Stephens Hall and Westminster Hall, amongst other areas. Sadly, no photos are allowed in most areas. And you definitely aren't supposed to sit on the benches in the Chambers.

In the Members' Lobby, you can see The Churchill Arch, which Churchill suggested should be rebuilt from the bomb damaged stonework, as a reminder of the fortitude of the country during the war. This is also where he, David Wright-George, Clement Atlee and Margaret Thatcher have been immortalised in bronze.

St Stephen's Hall, which is where the old House of Commons once sat, is full of historical paintings and statues. One statue has a damaged spur, which is historical in itself, as it was broken when the suffragettes chained themselves to the statues as part of their campaign to obtain the vote for women.

New Dawn, Palace of Westminster

One new feature, is the addition of a new stained glass window, called New Dawn, which made up of 168 hand blown glass discs, that are designed to look like the rolled up scrolls in the Parliamentary Archives, and represent people and acts that were part of the movement to give women the vote.

There was also an interesting piece art in Westminster Hall, which was created by Jorge Otero-Pailos, and is called The Ethics of Dust. It is a 50m long latex cast of the hall's eastern wall, which was used to clean the wall, and so has hundreds of years worth of dust and pollution absorbed into it. It is a strange idea, but it actually looks quite good, and it is fascinating to think that hundreds of years worth of history is contained within it.

The Ethics of Dust, Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

We enjoyed our visit to The Palace of Westminster, and even picked up a couple of souvenirs in the shop. Just do bear in mind if you go, that the Elizabeth Tower, which is the clock tower that the bell named Big Ben is in, is a separate tour, not included in this one.